


the spy who came in from the cold

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, Hoth, Long-Distance Relationship, Pathfinder Jyn Erso
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 05:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13427550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: Cassian and Jyn don't see each other all that often, but they make it work.





	the spy who came in from the cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [outruntheavalanche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruntheavalanche/gifts).



They see each other in fits and starts. Pathfinders are usually far from Intelligence, chiefly because Pathfinders make a lot of noise, and that endangers Intelligence operatives in the field. And Jyn makes an excellent Pathfinder.

Cassian isn't in the field, not after the damage done to his back, but the result is the same. He is Mon Mothma's best analyst, Draven's most trusted operative, and one of the very, very few people who Princess Leia really seems to listen to. He follows High Command, whether he's being asked to analyse a terabyte of hardwon Bothan data in a week (which he does) or someone is trying to persuade him to talk Princess Leia into becoming little more than a political propaganda figure (which he does not). High Command do not have much to do with the Pathfinders, unless the Pathfinders are being awarded medals.

So they see each other in fits and starts. There's a clandestine stop on a disregarded moon in the Chandrilan system. A highly deniable visit to the True Mandalorians. A brief rendez-vous when they are both testifying to the deliberate destruction of Scarif, and murder of several hundred loyal Imperial troops, by the Empire. (Chirrut and Baze and Bodhi speak for Jedha; Princess Leia tells the story of Alderaan one more time, her face as white as her dress. But only Cassian and Jyn are called on to explain that the Rebels did not reduce Scarif to a crater, and both their faces are kept in shadow, their voices disguised.)

"Why am I doing this," Jyn mutters, as she misses Cassian by a matter of standard hours on Hoth.

"Because you love him," Kes Dameron says. Shara Bey is not here either.

"Shut up," Jyn snaps.

Kes shrugs peaceably.

Cassian has left her a brief recording. She goes away to watch it in the relative privacy of a corner of her bunk, and when she has to leave she breaks into his room in a way that means he'll know she did it - despite the fact that she has the codes - and leaves a packet of sweets and a handwritten letter on his bed.

Her birthday present is a fresh chain for her crystal, since the leather string it's on is fraying. Cassian sends it to her via a complicated series of exchanges that end with Bodhi handing a package to her and saying "Wedge said Luke said that Princess Leia said that Cassian sent you this."

Jyn swaps out string and chain immediately. The metal is dull and won't catch the light and it's the perfect length to tuck into her bra and go unseen. It's much tougher than the string was and it's almost blue, if you squint.

"My birthday's in a week," she says.

"Cassian's not sure he can make it," Bodhi says, and grimaces.

Jyn knew it wasn’t likely. But still. For a moment there's something screaming and selfish in her chest and it wants to know why she can't, at least, have this. Even though she knows exactly why she can't.

  
The night before her birthday she breaks into Cassian's rooms and sleeps in his bed. No-one in her bunkroom will ask questions about where she is. As a rule, they avoid asking questions about her - at least to her face.

Cassian creeps in so quietly she doesn't hear him, but she does wake when he's standing over her, and has the blaster under her hand pointed at his face before he can breathe a word.

"This was supposed to be a surprise," he says, aggrieved, with his hands in the air.

"I'm surprised," Jyn says, lowering the blaster. "In fact, I'm very surprised. How did you get leave?"

"I didn't," Cassian says, sitting down on the bed and tugging his boots off. Jyn draws her knees up out of the way. "Princess Leia manufactured an excuse to be here. I suspect Solo."

"You always suspect Han."

"And ninety percent of the time I am right." Cassian drops both boots on the floor, and brings his feet up to sit cross-legged. The ground will be freezing; too cold for feet in socks. He looks at Jyn and smiles.

She puts out one of her hands to cover his, and he turns his hand over and weaves his fingers together with hers. "Hell of a birthday present," she says.

"I try," he says, and there's a long still moment where they're just looking at each other, smiling, like idiots.

"Come to bed," Jyn says eventually, softer than she meant to. "You brought the cold in with you."


End file.
